VISAKHAPATNAM: Procuring learners licence registrations (LLRs), She Auto drivers in the city are facing problems as banks have made it mandatory that the beneficiaries have to pay 10 per cent of the loan amount sought in advance to get their loan sanctioned. The she auto drivers say that they cannot afford to pay it.
While it’s been more than three months they got through the LLR and the provision of loan facility was provided to them but till date they could not avail of it and are waiting to pick up the women passengers from the roads. “We were asked to pay 10 per cent money that is not possible for us to contribute and we all decided to seek help from the GVMC to reduce the beneficiary percentage. One by one, we are going for the driving licence test and we hope the formalities regarding the reduction in beneficiary amount will be sorted out soon and like the women in other cities we can also ply autos on the roads of the city,” said D Srikanthi, a she auto learner.
Speaking to the Express, director of People’s Welfare Society and AP MEPMA partner, N Srilakshmi said, “We facilitated them with loan which will be sanctioned by Punjab National Bank but the she auto drivers said that they cannot afford the amount and they asked for reduction of the beneficiary’s share. There are 28 auto drivers to ply their vehicles. We have forwarded the letter to the GVMC for the self-employment loans so that they will only have to pay 5 per cent as beneficiary amount.”
“The loans with an interest of 11.95 per cent will be sanctioned and later they will be provided with 7 per cent subsidy by MEPMA which will be directly credited into the accounts of the borrower. We are sending five women in a trip for driving licence test. The main delay is from their side only and some of them are scared to go for the driving test. We have taken the trial test and I found them very good as drivers,” she added.
She auto drivers are all set to hit the fast lane of the city from the second week of September. Out of the 32 she auto drivers who got driving licence, only 20 could avail of the loans and owned their autos 10 days back. The vehicles will be officially hand over to them in the next few days. The loan of ` 1.44 lakh was sanctioned by Punjab National Bank and the drivers paid `26,000 as the beneficiary amount. The rest of the 12 licence holders could not avail of the loan facility due to the beneficiary amount.